At the most basic level, it seems like the Jewish question is to ask whether an employer would be satisfied with their workplace policies if they knew those policies would also be applied to their parents, children, or siblings. — Rabbi Elizabeth Richman, rabbi-in-residence, Jews United for Justice

Over the course of DC’s Paid Sick Days campaign, some restaurant owners have complained about the increasingly popular proposal while more have had their provision of paid sick days celebrated by growing numbers of Washingtonians.

Parties for Paid Sick Days! Jews United for Justice is hosting three house parties next week to help build momentum, expand engagement, and plan actions to help pass the Earned Sick and Safe Leave Amendment Act of 2013. On September 17, the legislation was introduced to the DC Council with 11 cosponsors and is now in committee. A public hearing is expected later this month.

Andy Shallal, owner of DC’s Busboys and Poets, is an outspoken advocate for paid sick days at restaurants. One of the most common questions he gets from other restaurant owners, he says, is whether workers will abuse the policy. “That hasn’t been our experience,” Shallal tells them.

I think about my own job, where I’ve had paid sick days since I started six months ago – but never once used one, because I haven’t been sick. If a business owner is worried about workers using any means possible to get off, perhaps that fear says something about the quality of the work environment itself.

Chef Tate has been running Inspire BBQ in a trendy part of DC for about three years. He says he’s never had a problem with employees taking advantage of the paid sick days he offers. Like a number of other restaurant owners in DC, Chef Tate says he’s offered paid sick days “since day one,” despite not being required to. “It’s a part of our ethics.”

“We say no one works for Inspire BBQ — we all work together,” Tate says. “So if the people you work with are your friends and family, then you’re concerned when they’re sick. Your perspective is you don’t want them to come to work sick not because you don’t want them to get other people sick, but because they’re sick.”

Be careful not to afflict a living creature, whether animal or fowl, and even more so not to afflict a human being, who is created in God’s image. If you want to hire workers and you find that they are poor, they should become like poor members of your household. You should not disgrace them; you shall give them their orders respectfully, and should pay their salaries.

“It has fostered a kinship and a careship amongst the staff that is priceless,” Chef Tate says. “One of our staff yesterday was talking about her throat, so when she called out today it wasn’t a big crash because she knew part of our policy was to call someone else who could work her shift. And that person didn’t have a problem because the reciprocal is returned when you’re sick.”

“At the most basic level,” says Rabbi Elizabeth Richman, JUFJ’s rabbi-in-residence, “it seems like the Jewish question is to ask whether an employer would be satisfied with their workplace policies if they knew those policies would also be applied to their parents, children, or siblings.”

Tate sees paid sick days as part of an overall ethic of respecting and supporting his employees that comes back around to benefit customers, the community and even his profit margins.

Restaurant owners opposing paid sick days, he says, will now “realize that the staff will do the things that will help your bottom line more than lying about being sick. They will turn the water off when they finish using the bathroom. They’ll close the refrigerator. If a young person knows that you care about them being hungry, they’ll stop stealing food.”

Tate says he’s worked in large hotels where there was an impersonal relationship between the workers and the owners, and has seen what it’s like to work in food service and not be treated well.

Renowned Chef Ethan Stowell, too, once worked for a large company where he says, “everybody looked at their paid sick days as extra vacation days.” Now he owns a group of successful restaurants in Seattle where he has offered paid sick days since before the law.

Stowell says that since he began to offer it, “we haven’t seen much change at all.” Mainly he’s not happy to be losing a competitive hiring edge. He expressed concern that employees would abuse the policy — “call in hungover,” for example — but acknowledged that hasn’t actually happened.

“I think at the larger restaurants where you’re not as personally involved with the owners or investors, you don’t have a personal connection with the owners of a multi-billion dollar company, so you’re taking advantage of somebody that you’re never going to meet.”

Which may drive home a ethic beyond paid sick days: that if you treat your employees well and provide for their health and their ability to take care of their families, they will treat you and your business well in return. And if owners don’t take the initiative to do the right thing, community groups like JUFJ, EJC, ROC DC, JFREJ and JALSA will organize to translate public opinion into new legislation.

“Judaism also recognizes the reality that employers always hold the upper hand,” says Rabbi Richman, “even in situations where there are very good worker-employer relationships. For that reason, Jewish law tends to side with workers and recognize that workers need additional protections.”

Sam Jewler was born and raised in DC and works in communications at Public Citizen. From 2012 to early 2013, he worked at JUFJ. He can be found on Twitter @LuddoftheFuture.